Media Statement 6/15/18

بِسْمِ اللهِ الرَّحْمٰنِ الرَّحِيْمِ

We hope this message finds you well.

We would like to begin by apologizing for our lack of communication and accessibility towards and with the MSA community. Since the onset of this sensitive issue, the Al-Talib team has been working to rectify it, and we extend our deepest apologies to all those who are hurt by our recent actions. As outlined in our initial media statement, Al-Talib’s mission is to provide students with an opportunity to express “an independent perspective on issues important to Muslim communities.” Our articles are geared towards college students, as well as the greater Muslim community, and we seek to provide “a platform for representation of all facets of the Muslim-American communities and a safe space for sensitive topics.” From our original understanding of its intentions, we believe that the article, “The American Muslim Imperative to Study and Oppose US Intervention in Syria” is appropriate to remain on the Al-Talib website.

Through a series of meetings with both the UCLA MSA Board and Al-Talib staff, we have had the opportunity to listen and further reflect on our response to the concerns expressed. In addition, we realize that our response may not have adequately addressed those concerns, and we apologize for the resulting disappointment. Our intention with this statement is to not only apologize for our mistakes, but to reflect on what we should have done. We should have made ourselves more accessible and reached out to the students who were first to express their concerns about the article sooner. We should have reached out to the community first and we should have considered our community’s opinions before releasing our initial media statement.

We plan on adding contact information on all Al-Talib media platforms, including the website. We hope that this will ensure better contact between the community and staff members.

We recognize and acknowledge our mistakes, and it is not our intention to delegitimize the hurt felt by the community. We sincerely apologize for this. May Allah SWT forgive us all for our shortcomings, and we look forward to better serve the community.